Author: NY TIMES

Viewers of award shows might have noticed a trend in recent years: Some of the red carpets have been colors other than red.But that doesn’t mean the color has been absent from the carpets. This year, red has been among the most popular colors worn by celebrities. Selena Gomez, Ayo Edebiri, Barry Keoghan, Dua Lipa, Meghann Fahy, Charles Melton, Michelle Yeoh, Suki Waterhouse and Margot Robbie are just some of the stars who have worn shades of red at recent awards shows like the Emmys and the Golden Globes.Danielle Brooks, an actress in “The Color Purple,” is another star who…

China’s ruling Communist Party is facing a national emergency. To fix it, the party wants more women to have more babies.It has offered them sweeteners, like cheaper housing, tax benefits and cash. It has also invoked patriotism, calling on them to be “good wives and mothers.”The efforts aren’t working. Chinese women have been shunning marriage and babies at such a rapid pace that China’s population in 2023 shrank for the second straight year, accelerating the government’s sense of crisis over the country’s rapidly aging population and its economic future.China said on Wednesday that 9.02 million babies were born in 2023,…

Google will cut 100 employees at its video platform, YouTube, on Wednesday, continuing piecemeal layoffs after shedding more than a thousand jobs in the past week.The tech giant notified workers from YouTube’s operations and creator management teams that their positions had been eliminated, according to an email reviewed by The New York Times. YouTube, the world’s most popular video service, employed 7,173 people on Tuesday, a person with knowledge of the total said.“We’ve made the decision to eliminate some roles and say goodbye to some of our teammates,” YouTube’s chief business officer, Mary Ellen Coe, wrote in a note to…

In late December 2019, eight pages of genetic code were sent to computers at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.Unbeknown to American officials at the time, the genetic map that had landed on their doorstep contained critical clues about the virus that would soon touch off a pandemic.The genetic code, submitted by Chinese scientists to a vast public repository of sequencing data run by the U.S. government, described a mysterious new virus that had infected a 65-year-old man weeks earlier in Wuhan. At the time the code was sent, Chinese officials had not yet warned of the unexplained…

Nearly 20 years ago, when Sleater-Kinney released its towering seventh album, “The Woods,” there was a convincing case to be made that the trio was the most vital, and underrated, working American rock band.Born of the fervent feminist spirit of the riot grrrl movement and the Pacific Northwest’s fertile D.I.Y. scene, the group spent the second half of the ’90s releasing increasingly sophisticated punk albums and eventually, on its righteous 2002 release “One Beat,” maturing into one of the few indie-rock bands making meaningful protest music in the aftermath of 9/11.On “The Woods,” Sleater-Kinney managed to kick things into an…

Israel and Gaza. Yemen and the Red Sea. Lebanon, Syria, Iraq — and now Pakistan, too.At every flashpoint in a set of conflicts spanning 1,800 miles and involving a hodgepodge of unpredictable armed actors and interests, there’s been a common thread: Iran. Tehran has left its imprint with its behind-the-scenes-backing of combatants in places like Lebanon and Yemen, and with this week’s direct missile strikes on targets in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan.The Iran connection stems partly from Iran’s decades-long efforts to deter threats and undermine foes by building up like-minded militias across the Middle East.In addition, Iran itself, like neighboring…

Each day this week has brought a new and fleeting reminder to the executives and politicians at the annual World Economic Forum meeting of the two wars threatening global security and clouding the economy. Ukraine’s president spoke on Tuesday. Israel’s spoke on Thursday.Neither was able to hold the collective attention of a gathering that this year has focused overwhelmingly on artificial intelligence and populist politics.Gaza and Ukraine have made daily appearances on the public agenda in Davos, along with climate change and economic inequality. But in the warm halls and slushy streets around town, conversations almost inevitably turn to the…

TAMPA, Fla. — Jason Kelce walked off the field alone, head lowered and clutching a helmet he may never wear again.It’s an overly somber sight for an image bearer so closely tied to the city in which the team plays, a 13-year center who best represents the team’s success while making his sixth All-Pro appearance. The player, a 36-year-old, once seemed like he would experience it again in another Super Bowl.Instead, Kelce stood on the sidelines, emotionally soaking in the final seconds of what could be the final loss of his final season. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had 32 points…

A couple of days after Aishat Bolomope’s wedding on Dec. 31, the newlywed realized that she might be spending her honeymoon on the choppy seas of internet outrage. Friends from as far as her native Nigeria said they recognized her in a video clip that drew millions of views online.A dispute between a wedding party and a coffee shop in Indianapolis had turned into a referendum on wedding etiquette and cultural norms, all of it warped by the distorting lens of social media.“The more I read, the more it broke my heart,” said Ms. Bolomope, a 28-year-old engineer.At the center…

By now, they were supposed to be well into the first leg of the three-year Life at Sea cruise, sailing from Ushuaia, Argentina, to Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia.Instead, more than a month after the cruise was abruptly canceled, one couple is stranded in an Istanbul hotel and on the verge of becoming homeless; another woman has moved to Ecuador because she can’t afford to pay her mortgage; and a man, recently diagnosed with cancer, has delayed his treatment because he doesn’t have the money to pay for it.On Tuesday, 78 would-be Life at Sea passengers sent a letter to…